A much-needed update

I forsee that this is going to be one of the toughest post I'll ever write here, since I am writing this to a very diverse set of audience. I used to believe in blogging only for myself and write what I want if my words do no harm. But since this blog is also acting as an assurance for my uber-protective mum that I am still alive somewhere, an "informal PI report" for my supervising prof back in NTU, and as a form of entertainment and envy for my peers back at Singapore stuck at their boring/not-so-boring internships, I am feeling increasingly like the MDA censorship board. To cut or not to cut. So in the spirit of journalism and nothing but the truth, I've decided to risk enduring my mum's incessant calls and the same-old "are u ok/don't go out at night/drink more water and eat more fruits" nagging. So here's what have been happening so far for the past month in this godforsaken country:

I went caving in one of the hills outside of Kathmandu. If you have seen the facebook pics posted by my Nepali friends you will know what I mean by caving here. We then walked for hours in the villages, lay down on the terraces of the farmlands and slept for awhile, tried some street food called Pani Porri (some biscuit thing with sour and salty juice which was totally unhygenic but surprisingly no stomachache) and visited a nice lake called Taudahar where a lengendary snake god lives. A nice hike just outside of Kathmandu and I've already felt I lost a kg. Pictures of this hike are on my FB.

Then my company had a 7th anniversary dinner at some atas hotel so I invited my other three cs flatmates to the dinner. We did alot of the social butterfly thing, had good food and that's about all for that night.

The next day was a holiday, Shivaratri, in which the Hindus honour Lord Shiva, the destroyer. Along with Yen Lin, we set out for Pashupatinath, one of the holiest Hindu temple of Shiva in the world with my colleague, photographer Hari-dai ("dai" meaning elder brother in Nepali and it works like how we call older men "uncle" in Singapore). Every year during Shivaratri, throngs of Hindu devotees will walk and queue for hours just to get inside Pashupatinath. Only Hindus are allowed inside. The Saddhus, holy Hindu men who have renounced the materialistic world, come together during Shivaratri to offer their devotion to Shiva. They do so by smoking weed/marijuana/ganga/hashish/pot/cannabis and going into trance. And all because Shiva was said to be constantly intoxicated while doing Yoga to detach himself from the body. Someone told me that one can get high just by breathing in the air at Pashupatinath during Shivaratri, so when we were there I tried my best to stay away from the Saddhus and the random crowd who suddenly starts shouting just to get high while smoking weed. Hence, Shivaratri is also known as Free Weed Day for some.

Hippies at Pashupatinath enjoying the free weed day atmosphere.

Then, my Japanese friend Yuko whom I met while on exchange in Missouri last year came to visit me with another of her Japanese friend. But before I could meet them, I was sent on a last-minute assignment to two national parks to promote eco-tourism by this company who is one of the pioneers in this form of tourism. We did all the touristy things like elephant safaris, rafting, village walks and more jungle walks. But the learning experience only came when I was returning back. I travelled more thn 14 hours west of Nepal, and coming back was no mean feat since that was the start at the series of Bandhs (roadblocks due to strikes and protests) along the only highway that runs across the East to the West of Nepal. Our micro-van driver had to get down to negotiate with the protesters that we are tourists and a foreigner (me) on board. The locals know not to mess with foreingers as they know they will get into bigger trouble if they do. Talk about Kuiley (foreigner) power! Out of the 5 Bandhs that happened on our way back, we managed to negotiate our way through 2 of them, avoided another 2 of them within the city of Butwal by taking smaller roads, and the one where the protesters refused to let anyone through we had to drive across a dried rocky river which resulted in a flat tyre. By the time we were through with the Bandhs we had to stay overnight at the first lodge that we stayed in when we first started our trip. The next day we were back on the roads and another flat tyre somewhere along the mountain road and finally we were back in Kathmandu. I'm proud to say that after watching the driver changed two flat tyres I've since learnt how to change one myself. A whole new side of Nepal opened up to me while on this trip, and seeing how the villagers can hold an entire country hostage just by blocking the highway changed my mindset on what freedom can lead to. I may not totally agree with LKY's stance on press freedom, but what he said about democracy and freedom has some truth in it.

A Bandh in the Tarai lowlands region, about 7 hours west of Kathmandu.

Driving across a dried and rocky river to get past the Bandh.

So I am back in Kathmandu, met up with Yuko and her friend Hiroko, and we went to book our bus tickets for our trip to Pokhara, another town 7 hours by bus away from Kathmandu. Along with Zak, we headed to Pokhara to meet up with Zi Liang, who was already there on an assignment for his company. I'll talk about Yen Lin in later posts, but she didn't go to Pokhara with us. We spent 5 days in Pokhara, where me and Yuko got sick for two days. She had food poisoning and I had another bout of stomach flu. But we managed to go boating on the lake in Pokhara and visited some caves and they went trekking while I hung around sick in town. But I did spent quality time catching up with Yuko, and we even wrote a postcard to Rachel who is still in Missouri.

An ill Yuko at Phewa Lake in Pokhara, with Jit Magar (his Nepali name) behind trying to row the boat, and Hiroko-san behind trying to take pictures while standing up on the shaky boat.

The Japanese girls and I came back to Kathmandu a day earlier than the guys, so we had a girls night and invited Kyoko-san, our Japanese neighbour over. I must say that Kyoko-san gave me the best back massage ever, although she said my back was like her otosan's (father).

So the next day we went to the Chobhar caves with Dewan-dai, a journalist from Nepali Times. It's an interesting experience, but since it was the second time going to Chobhar the novelty kind of wore off. But the Chobhar caves is nevertheless not for those who don't like squeezing and crawling in tight and confined spaces.

That night the guys returned from Pokhara and Yuko cooked omurisu (omelette rice), some prawn soba (noodles) and Hiroko made instand miso soup for us all which was totally delicious but the someone (aka Kitchen Nazi) was rather homesick and emo so Yuko thought he didn't like her food.

The chef cooking up a storm.

Itakakimasu!

But that night Kyoko-san gave foot massage to a few of us and this is the picture of the year:

I took a video of it and Zagat Gurung (his Nepali name) shall be a YouTube star soon when I get back to Singapore...

The following day me, Yuko and Hiroko joined in a hike by the Nature Lovers' Group at Godawari, about an hour's ride south of Kathmandu. Going up was tough for unhealthy me, but Yuko seemed to march on without so much as a pant. Hiroko was behind with Dewan-dai and the other Nepalese hikers, and I think she learnt the most Nepali during that day at the hike. The view on top at more than 3000m was worth it though, since we were soon out of sight of the polluted skies in Kathmandu and could see the nearby mountain ranges of Ganesh Himal, Langtang and other unidentified mountains just over the horizon. Coming back down was even harder than going up, and I figured I lost another kg from that hike.

Drink up!

Dewan-dai trying to take off like a paraglider...

Picnic lunch at the hike, which frankly sucks...

View of the snow-capped mountains

Yuko and Hiroko blanjah us at a Japanese restaurant, Furusato in Thamel on their last night in Kathmandu.

So the next day Yuko and Hiroko left for Singapore and on the same day Zagat's bro came to visit him. Yes Michelle, Jun Liang is here in Nepal and I told him about you. So we have another guest in our house currently.

Two days later was the festival of Holi, also known as Fagu Purnima. It is to celebrate the full moon and the start of Spring. It is the Festival of Colours, where guys are given the license to throw balloons filled with dirty coloured water at girls on the streets. I would have grabbed the chance to take pictures of the people having fun, but I wisely decided to stay at home and hide, since I've already been badly targeted on the streets two days before Holi. Holi is one of the major festivals in Nepal after Dashain and Tihar (Deepavali).

So this past few weeks we certainly did had many things going on, and Zagat even had his first "battle scars" from covering the 50th anniversary of the Tibetan Dalai Lama's exile outside the Chinese Embassy here. But that's another story for another day. For more pictures, please go to my Flickr account link, since Blogger sucks for uploading pics.

I hope my mum dosen't pick up the phone immediately after reading this.

PS: In case you are wondering, my Nepali name is Purnima Rai, Purnima meaning the full moon and given to me by a photographer in my office since my face is round like the full moon. The Rais are a caste of people in Nepal, often discriminated because most of them come from the villages but nevertheless they have a unique identity. Yen Lin's Nepali name is Anusha Alu Tamang, "Alu" meaning potato in Nepali and which she insisted on including in her name since she love potatos. But Alu is also used when something is lousy, such as "Alu connection" or "Alu results"...